"Favorite adaptation of ancient story?" Topic

What is your favorite adaptation of an ancient story? That is, a film, book, etc that has taken an existing ancient work and put it into a new time/setting.

Two of my favorites are:

The Warriors – Xenophon's Anabasis set among the gangs of 1970s New York.

O Brother, Where Art Thou – Homer's Odyssey set in Depression-era Mississippi.

Yours?

A local theatre groups version of Lysistrata, set in a strange version of the Vietnam war era equipment /American civil war issues.

Helped by the fact that most of the young cast were fairly talented, the dialogue had only minor changes, the Spartans were recast as southerners, and the Athenians were the soft civilised northerners.

The comedy priapic props were very funny. the costumes cheap but convincing, the three guns (m16s) that they had, must have been handed over as they left the stage, and the "action" sequences were pretty good!

I just wish someone had the chops to do a film version of it, set in the ACW with accurate kit!

O Brother, Where Art Thou scores very high, great film.

Does "Robin and the Seven Hoods" count ? Musical with Frank Sinatra. Derived, not so subtley from the legend of Robin Hood. Set in prohibition era Chicago. Sinatra is Robbo, Dean Martin is John, Sammy Davis Jr. is Will, and Peter Falk is Guy Gisborne. Not a Classic, but better than a sharp stick to the eye.

Well, not quite "Ancient", but…

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a reversal of Moby Dick (with Kirk as the whale…).

My Fair Lady is, of course, Pygmalion.

E.T., The Extra-Terrestrial, is the story of Christ. (Not making a religious commentary— it just has almost the same plot and elements).

Star Wars is of course virtually every epic hero story; Perseus probably fits the bill the closest.

Battlestar Galactica (both versions) is clearly based on The Aeneid.

And The Fisher King is (quite overtly) based on the story of my own namesake, Parzival.

I flagged up the Christ-parallels of THE DARK KNIGHT on Fez a while back.
I have a US translation of Lysistrata with the Deep Southern Spartans. In the Penguin the Spartan accent is rendered by Glaswegian. "Ah dunnow if Ah can sleep withoot a prick noo…"

Star Wars is derived from Kurosawa's Samurai drama THE HIDDEN FORTRESS. Not Ancient as such (tho a few centuries back), although Lucas made a point of setting it 'A long time ago' not in the future as per much Sci-fi.

Quantum Leap = Mr Ben

As much as I enjoyed the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?, George Clooney cannot hold a candle to Audrey Hepburn. So, My Fair Lady gets my vote.

More along the lines of a good wargaming story, there is always The Magnificent Seven / Seven Samaurai.

Rick

Quantum Leap = Mr Benn

Genius.

Donds for The Warriors.

If Battlestar Galactica is the Aeneid (and I'm not arguing), that also makes it pretty much the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Argonautica (for starters). I swear I saw Gilgamesh in there somewhere too.

War Music by Christopher Logue, started as a translation of the Iliad that spins off into its own story.

Robert Silverberg's sequel to GILGAMESH THE KING (A straight novelisation of the ancient text) is TO THE LAND OF THE LIVING where Gilgamesh & Enkidu enjoy the afterlife with Elizabeth I, Julius Caesar, HP Lovecraft & Robert E Howard, amongst others…

Cold Mountain was a more modern retelling of Homer's Odyssey, which in turn was a more modern retelling of The Epic of Gilgamesh. Nevertheless, I still prefer the O Brother Where Art Thou version of The Odyssey.

THE TRACKERS OF OXRHYNCHUS is an interesting play, the surviving satyr play fragment is worked into the story of the archaeologists who discovered the Oxrhychus papyrus dump…

Herne the hunter being worked into ROBIN OF SHERWOOD.